Ten Takeaways: Week Eight
This season keeps delivering each week.
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Ten Takeaways: Week Eight
1. It's OK, we can all say it out loud: We're in the midst of an all-time entertaining season
There's a reason 2007 is the gold standard for wild seasons. It had almost everything a college football fan could ask for. A year known for its upsets began with the greatest of all-time, doubled down with the most unlikely, and ended with a heartbreaker. (Unless you're a Pitt fan.) The Heisman race was stocked with superstars, led by Tim Tebow becoming the first sophomore to ever win it. Schools like Kansas, USF, Boston College and West Virginia were all slotted to play for the national title at some point. It's hard to truly describe how chaotic it was if you didn't live it. If you're a certain age, 2007 is the season of your fandom. That's what 2025 is on track to do for the next generation of CFB fans.
2025 doesn't have the volume of shocking upsets 2007 did –UCLA-Penn State aside– but the number of upsets in general is still booming. According to the NCAA, a ranked team lost to a lower-ranked, or unranked opponent 62 times during the 2007 regular season. By my unofficial count, that's already happened 36 times in 2025. Top-ten teams lost 29 times in 2007. We're already at 17 in 2025.
Every single week in 2025 so far has been a home run. The majority of ranked matchups have been quality, we've had great finishes, and the coaching carousel is on track to be the craziest ever. It's been a long time since 2007, but I remember it well enough to know this is exactly how I felt each Saturday then - the only difference now is that my drinking is legal.
I'm not writing this to make you choose between the two, either. 2007 has a certain level of magic and nostalgia attached to it that make it almost impossible for any other season to live up to. All I'm saying is that this year is pretty damn awesome, too, and I hope it continues playing out this way. The next step is getting an actual Heisman race to go along with it.
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2. A tough weekend for the Big Three
48 days ago, Miami, Florida, and Florida State were all ranked in the top-15 of the AP Poll for the first time since the 2006 preseason. Week eight was a harsh reminder of the different lengths each has to go to truly return to their glory days.
The Canes kicked off the week by dropping an instant-classic to Louisville, 24-21. I'm not completely shocked the Cards won –they're a legitimate team, and it's a classic Mario Cristobal-ing at home, of course– but I am surprised that it was less because of fortunate breaks, and more Louisville straight-up outplaying Miami. The Canes had to dig themselves out of an early 14-0 hole, couldn't run all night (63 yards), and Carson Beck imploded with four interceptions. The game-sealing pick from TJ Capers is a Play of the Year candidate:
The good news for Miami is that none of their goals are off the table. Their path to an ACC Title Game/Playoff appearance is still likely, given how light their schedule looks. This is still a top-ten team, despite the loss. The bad news is you can copy/paste what I just said from the post-script of their loss at Georgia Tech last November. We all know how that turned out.
Sidenote: Louisville is now an ACC Title/Playoff threat, and Jeff Brohm is a bad dude:
Jeff Brohm is now 4-4 vs AP Top-5 teams in his career.
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 18, 2025
I can't say the Canes had it the worst among their Sunshine State brethren, though. Florida State's freefall continued with their ninth-straight ACC loss - this time in an insane ending to a banged-up Stanford:
I waited to post this column until Monday in-part because I wanted to see if this would be the final straw for Mike Norvell. It's hard to believe that things in Tallahassee might be even uglier than last year, but it sure seems that way. They're letting him ride of the rest of the season, at least for now:
Andrea Adelson
Norvell's former counterpart in Gainesville can't say the same. Billy Napier was fired after Florida's fortunate win over Mississippi State, which I'm still laughing at:
The buzz all last week was that Napier was gone on Sunday –regardless of the result– and that's exactly how it played out. One (miraculous) win over Mississippi State was never going to be enough to counteract three years of overwhelming evidence that Napier simply wasn't the guy in Gainesville.
